The Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF) approved eight financial top-ups to ongoing programmes which the Fund finances in the Horn of Africa. Together they will: support the transitional process towards democracy in Sudan; mitigate the impact of the unfolding famine in South Sudan; and address the critical needs of forcibly displaced communities and migrants in the region. The bulk of the funding comes from the recent de-commitment of funds allocated to Eritrea that the EUTF’s operational committee approved in May 2021.

Sudan

A peaceful revolution in Sudan in December 2018 saw Omar al-Bashir overthrown after 30 years of dictatorship. The EU remains committed to supporting the country’s transition and helping it deal with the consequences of its current economic crisis, which COVID-19 measures have exacerbated. The Fund has approved increases in spending amounting to €75 million for four programmes:

• €18 million will allow many more acutely malnourished children and pregnant and lactating women in Eastern Sudan to receive treatment
• €15 million will expand current activities to the whole of South Darfur and South Kordofan states, allow more nomadic children to receive an education and fund remedial programmes after COVID-19 school closures.
• €20 million will mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic by expanding cash transfers to vulnerable households.
• €22 million will support Sudan’s efforts towards debt relief and provide essential information technology infrastructure and equipment to national institutions such as the Central Bank of Sudan and the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning.

South Sudan

More than 60% of the South Sudanese population are predicted to face severe acute food insecurity in 2021. Six counties have been classified as famine-likely. So the Fund has approved a top-up of €20 million to provide food assistance where food is scarce and to support smallholder farmers in accessing markets and generating an income. It will bolster activities in highly food-insecure areas of Bahr El Ghazal, and expand them to the Greater Upper Nile region.

Horn of Africa

In Djibouti, a further €3.5 million will extend by 18 months a successful programme launched in 2017 to support refugees, forcibly displaced people and migrants. Djibouti currently hosts more than 33 000 refugees and is a transit point along migration routes in the region.

In northern Uganda a further €3 million will address the critical needs of refugees and the communities who host them, enabling many more women and young people, in particular girls, to acquire vital skills to help them find jobs and earn a living.

Across the region, a further €5.95 million for the Facility on Return and Reintegration will enable the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to gather more and better data on migration, enable partner countries to develop and implement orderly, safe and dignified return and reintegration procedures, and provide stranded migrants with assisted voluntary return and reintegration assistance.

Image © UNODC, 2021